Representatives of Czech Rugby will be visiting North Midlands on Saturday January 17 as part of the RFU’s Unity Project.
The visit is a reciprocal trip to the one made to the Czech Republic by North Midlands President Charlie Hemmings and Matt Elwell of Woodrush last summer along with representatives of Staffordshire and the RFU.
North Midlands and Staffordshire have been twinned with the Czech Republic as patrt of the Unity Project, a ground-breaking project in partnership with the International Rugby Board (IRB), FIRA-AER and UK Sport aimed at growing rugby in 17 European nations ahead of this year’s Rugby World Cup.
The Unity Project forms part of the legacy plans being implemented by the RFU and falls under the wider work of the IRB’s RWC 2015 rugby legacy programme, ‘IMPACT beyond 2015.’
The IRB and FIRA-AER selected the 17 countries for the RFU and its Constituent Bodies to work with over the next three years, with the project formally due to finish in June 2016.
The Czech delegation will be guests of Woodrush RFC during their day with North Midlands and will see a Kids First coaching course by Chris Hargreaves, an RFU Community Rugby Coach.
After lunch the delegation will watch Woodrush’s Midlands Three West (South) match against Pershore.
The members of Czech Rugby will also be hosted by Staffordshire during their fact-finding weekend in the Midlands.
“The focus of the visit it to demonstrate how we work with the mini and junior sections at delivering quality coaching and to introduce them to the idea of tag rugby,” said Elwell, the North Midlands Unity Project co-ordinator.
“Other areas such as refereeing , player recruitment and club structure will be covered during the visit.
“It is one of the main areas that the Unity Project hopes to improve in the Czech Republic as we move towards deliverance of the project and the Rugby World Cup.
“For North Midlands and Woodrush it is a great opportunity to meet a very receptive group of rugby people looking to learn from the way we organise , promote and play rugby in the CB.”